Many products and/or services sold today come with warranties or the expectation that, at some point during the products life, repairs or service will be necessary. Typically, to receive warranty coverage (and thus free or discounted repairs or replacement), a consumer must prove when the item was purchased and that the warranty remains in effect for the item purchased. Proof usually requires the consumer to present the original receipt or some other form of documentation. Accordingly, the consumer must save such information and be able to find the information at the appropriate time. Frequently, the necessary information is misplaced, lost, or forgotten.
Vendors of products or services do not typically save the necessary proof for each consumer during the time period of the warranty. Further, maintaining such records would distract the vendor from generating revenues from sales of the products or services to new consumers. However, without the necessary warranty information, warranties cannot be honored by vendors authorized to repair or replace the product or service. In such cases, the consumer may find another (non-authorized) vendor who will perform the repair and/or replacement that would have been covered by the warranty for less money. The result is that the authorized vendor fails to receive the additional revenue.